Parent of a child

My son was about 8 or 9 years old when he started pulling out his scalp hair.

I am not able to put into words all of the emotions that I felt when I first noticed the bald patches on his scalp. I knew that this was not something that could easily be resolved.

We tried therapy and medications, but neither were more than temporarily helpful. The potential side effects of the medications, some that we tried and others that are sometimes prescribed, are more that a bit alarming, but there seemed no where else to turn.

In the local newspaper, I happened to read “Dear Abby” one day, and the entire column was devoted to TTM. There was a reference to TLC there and names and numbers of people to contact locally.

Looking back, I know that God had a plan for beginning Darren’s road to recovery (and Beyond). I learned about an adult support group and attended one on a Sunday evening. One of the attendees told me that Camilla was starting a support group for parents and children of TTM.

The first time that Darren came with me to the group, his body language of crossed arms, baseball cap and silent lips made his opinion of this group very clear. He didn’t want to be there and he certainly didn’t think it was going to be of any help. Oh yes, and there was no way that his baseball cap was coming off!

After the first meeting, it was apparent to Darren and me that there was a reason that this gathering is called a “support group”. Camilla met with the children and shared her testimony with them. They were all able to talk about this desire that they had in common that had previously made them feel like they were “weird”. Now they began to believe that they could know victory and see that there was a larger purpose behind why God chose them to experience TTM.

Darren has learned so many valuable lessons through the TCM support group that it is impossible to list them all, but here are a few:

1.    God, through his Son, Jesus Christ sill performs miraculous healings. Darren hasn’t worn a baseball cap in years!

2.    People don’t need to know you to pray for you. The fact that there were many people praying for him that didn’t even know him was quite impressive to him. I believe that he understands that praying for others, even if we don’t know them, is something that is expected of Christians.

3.    He has had the need to learn how to ask for help from his Savior to overcome a powerful and unwelcome desire. This is no common in someone so young.

4.    The he could feel love unconditionally by people outside of his family. This was an example for him of how Christians should show love to others.

I am so thankful for the privilege of getting to know Camilla and the other people in the TCM group. The Lord has taken our family from being desperate to find help from any source to knowing that we should look first, foremost and always to Him, whether it seems that God has enabled medical science to provide answers or not. What an awesome God we serve.